You must investigate your supplier!

We recently had a site audit with a Tier 1 OEM. I am proud to say we passed with flying colors and have been added as one of their “Approved Independent Distributors”. When the engineer was here she shared a story with us that I felt was worth sharing with you. While out visiting a few other potential suppliers this trip to possibly add them because of the market conditions and so many shortages this was what she encountered. The day before our site visit she went to the address of a company and it turned out to be a residential home. She figured since she made the trek across from one coast to the other she would at least investigate further. She knocked on the door and no one would come out or even open the door. Now this was a scheduled site visit they accepted and this “company” was the one that had been contacting the OEM for months asking for business. The person told her through the door, “we are not ready for you, please go to Starbucks & come back in 2 hours”. Personally, I don’t think once I saw it was a residence would I have even gone further but curiosity got the best of her. So, she decided to go and come back. She came back a few hours later and when she knocked on the door a very intimidating person came out and was a little aggressive wanting to know why she was there and what she was looking for.  She responded that this was a scheduled appointment and it was the result of their sales people reaching out trying to do business with her company. She decided at that point it was no longer a good idea to stick around and left. Crazy story, right? Well moral of this story is don’t get fooled by a website. You really need to investigate the company that is calling on you or you located via a “google search”. Make sure its not a dog and pony show, do they have the equipment in house they claim they have, do they actually do the QC methods they claim they do, are they even actually a legitimate company?  Unfortunately, this is what we are dealing with in our industry, make sure you check out your potential vendors and be safe out there.